Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL; Bangkok, Thailand; www.indorama.net) has signed an agreement to purchase the purified isopthalic acid (PIA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) business of Compañía Española de Petróleos S.A.U. (CEPSA Spain) in Guadarranque-San Roque, Cadiz, Spain, subject to necessary legal approvals.
Following the acquisition of Cepsa’s 600,000-metric ton (m.t.) Canadian PTA assets in June 2015, the new acquisition in Spain has 220,000 m.t. of PIA, 325,000 m.t. of PTA and 175,000 m.t. of PET capacity. The site is one of the few integrated sites worldwide that integrates PTA, PIA and PET where a third party refinery is located at the same site to supply raw materials. It is in line with IVL’s successful strategy of vertical integration, portfolio expansion and geographic diversification.
PIA is an important part of the chemistry, half of which is used in the production of PET resin and half in important end uses, especially paints. Cepsa Spain is the only producer of PIA in Europe and is the world’s second-largest producer. The company owns its own advanced and patented technology, thereby providing a strong barrier to entry. Spain’s PTA technology is also proprietary and IVL has been operating its sister plant in Montreal, Canada which it acquired earlier in 2015. Spain’s 175,000-m.t./yr PET plant is technically a sister plant of the IVL-owned Rotterdam plant, which is currently operating at 220,000 m.t./yr, and therefore there exists a established low cost de-bottlenecking opportunity.